All About The Palindromes

According to the August 12th edition of The Daily Freeman, Todd Solondz is shooting his latest film, titled in this article as The Palindromes (emphasis added), at Bard College, in the Mid-Hudson region of New York state. They're working with a budget of just $500,000, with about 70 percent of the 50-person crew made up of local film students. Said producer Mike Ryan, "We have college students doing jobs which are normally done by professionals. That's scary, but at the same time, the Bard kids have a very good base of learning and they've taken to it really well."
Even more enlightening is their description of the article: "Solondz's shoestring budget film, which stars Ellen Barkin and Jennifer Jason Leigh, chronicles a young runaway's road trip from the suburbs of New Jersey, through Ohio to the plains of Kansas and back. …The Palindromes employs multiple characters of both sexes and different ages to play the film's protagonist, a 13-year-old girl."
"This is a very experimental film," said Ryan, who put up all of the film's funding along with co-producer Derrick Tseng. "He is doing something that has never been done before. And in Hollywood it's a big problem when somebody wants to push boundaries. But Todd is somebody who makes films for himself, not for money or career."
Ryan added that The Palindromes could be released early next year, most likely in a limited run. "It's challenging material told in a challenging way. That just means that it won't be in the malls."
Finally, The IMDB has added information about another Palindromes cast member: Stephen Singer, who'll play Dr. Fleicher (who's also played doctors in Don Juan DeMarco and the Douglas family vanity affair, It Runs in the Family), is pictured below:

Another Palindromes Cast Member Unveiled

According to a July 28th report from Playbill News, New York playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis has been cast by Solondz to appear in his latest film. Guirgis has written Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train,
In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings and most recently Our Lady of 121st Street, all with the LAByrinth Theatre Company, and all off which were directed by actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Magnolia, Love Liza, and, of course, Happiness). He's also written for several of the major NYC-based cop shows.

Comparing the Old and New Happiness DVDs

Essentially, there is no difference. Contrary to previous reports, this transfer is not anamorphic, or freshly restored, or anything else. There are no new extras - the menu and features are identical, right down to the hidden Slam and Another Day In Paradise trailers. There isn't even (as was the case with the previous version) an insert. The difference between the listed running times (the old one says "139 minutes;" the new one says "140") is nill - they're both 139.51. Just to emphasize the same-ness of these DVDs, here are screen shots taken from each:

Signature Series:

Original:

...The only difference is the packaging, and that they got rid of the bizarre, double-sided disc feature, where the other side only featured a small txt file which read, "This side is not playable." Save your money, folks, and thanks for nothin', Lions' Gate. >:P

Oh yeah. P.s. - The "Signature Series" cover now looks like this (below), not as shown in the previous news entry (note the different sig, and Newseek quote, as opposed to Time Out's).

Slightly more Palindromes Info Eeked Out the Pipeline

Another casting call, this time from The Poughkeepsie Journal, yields a little more information about Solondz's latest film. The call (which, for the record, is over - the article was published on Friday the 27th, for Saturday, the 28th, from 10 AM to 2 PM at Bard College in Annandale in the student center.) was for girls of all ethnicities and types, ages 12 to 14. According to both the article and a recent IMDB update; Chris Penn (Resevoir Dogs, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar) is going in to star in this film, along with the previously announced Ellen Barkin. The article added that, "[t]hey play parents to an awkward teenage daughter named Aviva... The movie is centered around Aviva, her friends, neighbors and her family where one parent is loving and another has been known to have a fierce temper."

The same IMDB update also makes some additions to the crew list: producer Derrick Tseng (Freak Talks About Sex, A Good Baby), cinematographer Tom Richmond (House of 1,000 Corpses, Chelsea Walls, Hard Rock Zombies), costume designer Victoria Farrell (Boys Don't Cry, Strangers With Candy) and first assistant director Timothy Bird (Far From Heaven, Storytelling). They've also removed Lisa Muskat (George Washington)'s name as one of the producers. Hmmm...